Trump hints Google might be guilty of monopolistic behavior

1Shares

In the wake of the European Union fining Google $5 billion for monopolistically using the Android operating system, US President Donald Trump has spoken out. He criticized the EU’s move but said his administration was “looking into” its own antitrust proceedings against the search giant.

“You look at the European Union, they fined I guess it was Google, billions of dollars, and frankly I don’t like that they’re doing that because that’s an American company,” Trump told Jonathan Swan and Jim VandeHei, of the news site Axios, on its debut HBO show on Sunday night.

Trump continued of the EU: “I don’t think it’s good that they’re doing that. But if anybody does that, it should be us doing it.” When Swan suggested the possibility of the Justice Department investigating antitrust allegations against Google, Trump responded that it was indeed happening.

On the issue of whether he would ever break up not only Google but also Facebook and Amazon if the three were deemed guilty of antitrust violations, he said that “we are certainly looking at it”. He clarified that, here, he was referring to antitrust proceedings, not breaking up the companies.

As noted by Business Insider, the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division would be responsible for such proceedings.